Getting to Smart Growth in
Brevard County
A Community Journey
Jim Fletcher
Southern Community Development Conference
May 19, 2003
Brevard
County
2
Land Statistics
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•
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Total Land Area
Agricultural Land (2003)
Government Owned (2000)
Development Land
641206 Acres
147057 Acres
296128 Acres
198021 Acres
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Urbanization
• Population
– Change 1980-1990 46% (126000)
– Change 1990-2000 19.4% (77252)
Current Population
500,000
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What do value most about our
County ?
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•
•
•
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Natural Resources/Environment
Educational System/Opportunities
Economic Diversity
Cultural Activities
Public Services
Sense of Community
Geography
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What trends or issues are
impacting what we value?
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•
•
•
•
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Growth and Development
Disappearing Natural Resources
Property Rights
Regulations
Invasive Exotic species
Aging Population
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People Care About Their
Communities
News media covers topics
on a daily basis
Land Use and
Growth are
concerns!!
Land Use and Growth: Coordination & Planning
Goal:
Educate and Reach Consensus About
Growth and Conservation Issues
Year One Initiatives
 Develop ‘Smart Growth’ principles and
implementation strategies for Brevard County
 Develop methods to inform and educate primary
users and citizens
Group Education on
Smart Growth
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Seven Principles Of Smart
Growth:
Community Identity
Community Involvement
Economic of Land Use
Environmental Quality
Housing
Mixed Land Use
Responsive Government
COMMUNITY
IDENTITY
Goal:
Encourage the types of growth and physical environments that create a
sense of civic pride and reflect the interests of all residents.
Strategies:
1. Encourage preservation or adaptive reuse of
historic, architecturally significant, or blighted
buildings.
2. Create active and safe open spaces providing
opportunities for community interaction.
3. Define communities and neighborhoods with visual
cues that reinforce their unique sense of place.
COMMUNITY
I D E N T I T Y cont.
Goal:
Encourage the types of growth and physical environments that create a
sense of civic pride and reflect the interests of all residents.
Strategies:
4. Enact clear community design guidelines so that
streets, buildings, and public spaces work together
to create a sense of place.
5. Plant trees throughout communities and encourage
the preservation of existing trees during new
construction.
6. Minimize visual blight through appropriate location
and camouflage of telecommunication towers
and through improved control of billboards.
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COMMUNITY
INVOLVEMENT
Goal :
Promote the education and motivation of the community to
address specific needs and concerns through early, frequent
and continuous involvement.
Strategies:
1. Encourage a comprehensive planning process by
gathering community input and conducting
community visioning exercises to determine how
and where neighborhoods will grow.
2. Use creative methods to educate and inform all
stakeholders about the development and
decision-making process.
C O M M U N I T Y I N V O L V E M E N T cont.
Goal :
Promote the education and motivation of the community to
address specific needs and concerns through early, frequent
and continuous involvement.
Strategies:
3. Seek technical assistance when developing
a public participation process.
4. Work with the media to disseminate planning
and development information on a regular basis.
5. Cultivate relationships with schools, universities
and colleges.
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ECONOMICS
OF
LAND
USE
Goal:
Promote growth, maintenance and renewal of diverse
communities that are self-sustaining and support a quality of life
that respects all the attributes of Brevard County.
Strategies:
1. Incorporate or include all the up-front development
costs at the time of development.
2. Pay for the long-term costs that are needed to
maintain the infrastructure required for the development.
3. Encourage a mix of uses that provide or generate
long-term revenue sources needed to maintain the communities.
ECONOMICS
OF
LAND
U S E cont
Goal:
Promote growth, maintenance and renewal of diverse
communities that are self-sustaining and support a quality of life
that respects all the attributes of Brevard County.
Strategies:
4. Encourage a mix of job types that support the diverse
mix of residents within the community to ensure that
all levels of skills are employed.
5. Integrate various components, such as residential,
commercial and recreational to maximize their economic
interactions.
6. Create special improvement districts for focused investment.
7. Implement a program for identification and disposition of vacant or
abandoned buildings.
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ENVIRONMENTAL
QUALITY
Goal ::
Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental
areas.
Strategies:
1. Encourage development/redevelopment within existing urban areas,
where infrastructure is available, by providing incentives
2. Create a harmonious, interconnected system of Greenways,
Blueways, and trails that encourages protection and conservation of
our natural habitat and open spaces.
3. Find ways to acquire property when a community has environmental
concerns.
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ENVIRONMENTAL
QUALITY
Goal ::
Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental
areas.
Strategies:
3. Expand use of innovative financing tools to facilitate open space
acquisition and conservation.
4. Design and implement zoning tools that preserve open space.
Conserve natural resources throughout the region.
5. Coordinate and link local, state, and federal planning on land
conservation and development.
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HOUSING
Goal ::
Improve quality of life by providing a broad range of housing for all
demographic groups that is consistent with smart growth goals.
Strategies:
1. Integrate S.M.A.R.T. (Safe, Mixed-income, Accessible, Reasonablypriced, Transit- oriented) principles into housing programs.
2. Provide for affordable housing through effective use of inclusionary
zoning.
H O U S I N G cont.
Goal ::
Improve quality of life by providing a broad range of housing for all
demographic groups that is consistent with smart growth goals.
Strategies:
4. Provide for a mix of housing that generates the taxes to pay for the
services it uses.
5. Encourage housing in the areas of employment and industry.
6. Implement a program for identification and disposition of vacant or
abandoned housing.
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MIXED
LAND
USES
Goal :
Create an atmosphere that allows people to work, live, and play
in pedestrian oriented neighborhoods that are distinctive in
character, vibrant, sustainable and an integral part of the
Brevard community.
Strategies:
1. Identify locations or land use relationships that
would be conducive to mixed use development.
2. Identify and modify development codes that
encourage the construction of a variety of
housing types in close proximity to goods and services.
MIXED
LAND
U S E S cont
Goal :
Create an atmosphere that allows people to work, live, and play
in pedestrian oriented neighborhoods that are distinctive in
character, vibrant, sustainable and an integral part of the
Brevard community.
Strategies:
3. Support subdivision regulations that encourage
inter-subdivision connectivity (both vehicular and
pedestrian) or allow for sole use of arterial roadways
for subdivision travel.
4. Identify opportunities to plan for neighborhood schools.
5. Identify grayfields as future mixed use development
areas and provide incentives for redevelopment.
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RESPONSIVE
GOVERNMENT
Goal ::
To promote Smart Growth policies, county and city governments
need to have systematic, coordinated development procedures that
give priority to developments that have adhered to Smart Growth
principles.
Strategies:
1. Amend development regulations throughout the county to remove
barriers that inhibit smart growth such as: setbacks, parking
requirements, height and density.
2. Create a higher level of certainty and speed the approval process for
smart growth developments.
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R E S P O N S I V E G O V E R N M E N T cont.
Goal ::
To promote Smart Growth policies, county and city governments
need to have systematic, coordinated development procedures that
give priority to developments that have adhered to Smart Growth
principles.
Strategies:
3. Ensure that community plans are economically feasible and attract
active private sector participation.
4. Encourage interagency cooperation to facilitate one-stop-shop
(permitting) process.
5. Give priority to smart growth projects and programs that foster Smart
Growth in the allocation of federal housing and community
development block grant funds.
SMART GROWTH Goals and Strategies
Document Discussion
Questions To Answer:
• Are there any gaps?
• Is there anything that you find
unacceptable?
• Will you advocate for these goals?
Public Forum
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6 Public Forums
Used SGTV
Break out Sessions
Incorporate into document
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End Result
• Published Document
• Given to Policy makers (County and City)
• Adopted into Growth Management plan
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